Days Gong By

Intro

Calling for help when being attacked by goblins was made easy with this LARP gong. I have used this as a player in a game where other players had established camps across a 50-acre wooded site. This 2 foot by 2 foot round gong was so loud that everyone was able to hear it over the crunching of their breakfast. The best part was that it was inexpensive to make and super durable. In this little tutorial, we will show you how you can make your very own LARP Gong.

You will need

• 1 piece of steel depending on your project size (We use 2’x2′)
• Small hammer
• Large hammer (Mallet or Sledge)
• Grinder with cutoff wheel (Plasma, torches, etc)
• Drill with 1/2″ bit preferred
• Marker
• String

The art of start

Very first thing you need to do with your metal plate is to find the center. We drew 2 lines from each corner across which gave us our center. From there we made a circle using a piece of string and the marker. Then drew out the ears of our gong freehand.

The loud part

After we had all our markings it was time to cut out our shape. We used a grinder with a cutoff wheel. The best way to make this accurate is to do multiple thin passes. Wear your ear and eye protection!

The VERY loud part

After we had cut out the shape that we wanted and drilled the holes for the ropes. It was time to go for a drive. We found a housing development where there were no people around. Used the indents of the ground as a template and started hammering with the sledgehammer. This part was super loud, if you decided to skip the ear protection in the last bit you won’t need it anymore after this. After we have hammered the plate into a bowl. Our gong had taken shape. We used the smaller hammer to smooth it out a little.

Making it pretty

When you finished all the metalwork it was time to add some paint. This part is optionary but we didn’t want it to rust. I think we got the paint from mistints at the hardware store. Painted it in our ingame guild emblem, which I was assured was not a corset.

Last bit and we’re done

After the paint had dried we had built a stand using 2x4s. We could have saved some trouble by just hanging the gong off a tree. Here is the finished product. The gong rang loud when hitting with a tree branch and saved our butts multiple times.

Special Thanks to Glen for possing in the picture and “The Monastery” in-game guild.